Chapter Thirty-Three: The White Jade Flood Dragon Whip (Part One)

Ji Mo was wounded, and the recent battle had drained all her strength. It was clearly unsuitable for her to head out on a mission at this moment, so she did not force herself. She summoned Red Flame and returned to Thunder Peak.

Red Flame carried her, soaring just above the main summit of Thunder Peak. From afar, Ji Mo saw Lei Wei, who had been missing for over five years, standing before the palace with his hands behind his back. An uncontrollable joy surged in her heart. Before Red Flame could land safely, she leapt from its back, practically running in three steps where two would suffice, and stopped before Lei Wei, exclaiming excitedly, “Master, you’re back!”

“Yes, after so many years apart, the little girl of yesteryear has grown up. I heard you had a fight with that Mu Baiyun fellow?” Lei Wei’s face revealed a faint smile as he reached out to ruffle her hair and asked with a chuckle.

“Yes,” Ji Mo answered, her bright eyes blinking.

“How did it turn out?” Lei Wei asked casually.

“Barely a draw. He didn’t use his spirit sword. If it were a real fight to the death, I wouldn’t be his match,” Ji Mo replied, sticking her tongue out a little, embarrassed.

“That’s already quite impressive. You fought him barehanded, without any weapon or magical treasure, and still managed to tie. That’s more than I expected,” Lei Wei said, clearly satisfied, his smile growing broader.

Ji Mo was never modest. With Lei Wei’s praise, she shamelessly pressed her advantage, saying, “Since Master thinks I did well, how about rewarding me with a spirit weapon?”

“You little rascal, growing more cunning as you get older, even scheming against your master. Well, tell me, what kind of weapon do you want?” Lei Wei asked, amused.

“Master, I’d like a whip,” Ji Mo tilted her head thoughtfully. She had wanted a flying sword—for her, soaring through the sky atop a sword was incredibly cool—but she hadn’t practiced sword-riding techniques, nor understood the method to nurture a spirit sword. Even if her master gave her a peerless blade, it would be useless, so after considering it, she chose a whip.

“A whip? Hmm, I do have a fine whip. But I wonder if you can wield it,” Lei Wei said, recalling the White Jade Flood Dragon Whip he had acquired centuries ago.

“What kind of whip, Master? Let me see it first,” Ji Mo asked eagerly, tugging at Lei Wei’s sleeve, impatient to get a look.

“Alright, since you want to see it, I’ll show you.” Without refusing, Lei Wei conjured a silver whip from his spatial ring.

The whip was about six feet long, no thicker than a finger, pure white in color. The handle was inlaid with an eight-inch piece of black wood. As Lei Wei shook it in the wind, the silver whip seemed to come alive, writhing in the air like a silver dragon. Sunlight gleamed off its surface, dazzlingly beautiful. Ji Mo’s eyes lit up with a wolfish hunger, fixated on the whip, and she spoke urgently, “Master, this whip is gorgeous. Please give it to me!”

“Haha, this whip is called the White Jade Flood Dragon Whip. As the name suggests, it was crafted from the tendons and bones of a flood dragon, a powerful beast. By rights, a whip forged from such mighty materials should possess immense power, but since I acquired it, I’ve never been able to fully unleash its strength—perhaps I lack affinity with it. You may have it, but first try it out; if you can command it, I’ll give it to you,” Lei Wei laughed, handing the whip to Ji Mo.

He’d had the whip for more than three hundred years. When he first obtained it, he sensed its power, but in his hands it was merely sturdy and sharp, nothing extraordinary. He’d let his four disciples try it as well, but none could wield it to any effect. Thus, for three centuries, the whip had lain dormant in his storage ring.

Ji Mo, heart pounding, took the White Jade Flood Dragon Whip. For reasons unknown, as soon as she saw it, a fierce longing rose within her—how to describe it? Like a starving dog spotting a bone dripping with meat (forgive the protagonist for such an undignified metaphor), she wanted to pounce upon it.

The moment the whip touched her hands, a strange sense of bloodline connection surged in Ji Mo’s heart. She gripped it tightly, and her Celestial Monster Body Tempering Technique began to circulate automatically. Simultaneously, her spiritual energy was irresistibly drawn toward the whip. Ji Mo shook her hands, the tip of the whip pointing to the sun overhead.

A resonant howl, like a dragon’s roar, echoed above Thunder Peak. The White Jade Flood Dragon Whip in Ji Mo’s hands flared with golden light, and a phantom dragon emerged, coiling in the air and roaring ceaselessly. The moment the dragon appeared, Lei Wei, standing beside Ji Mo, felt his breath catch. He, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was oppressed by the aura emanating from the dragon’s shadow.

Ji Mo herself felt no such pressure. She only sensed her spiritual energy being relentlessly drawn into the whip, her Celestial Monster Body Tempering Technique running at full tilt.

Pitifully, she was only a third-tier Qi Refiner. Even though she cultivated all five elements and possessed spiritual energy far higher than her peers, and her technique had reached the transcendent stage, the energy stored in her body was still a mere drop in the ocean for the White Jade Flood Dragon Whip. In less than a moment, her strength was drained completely; her vision darkened, her grip loosened, and with a thud, she collapsed to the ground.

The whip, deprived of Ji Mo’s support, saw the dragon’s phantom roar twice more before retreating back into the whip, which then fell and lay quietly beside her. Lei Wei was stunned, not recovering until both Ji Mo and the whip lay at his feet. He took a few deep breaths, knelt beside Ji Mo, and checked her pulse, finding she had simply fainted from excessive spiritual exhaustion.

The whip’s astonishing display had alarmed the five elders of Thunder Peak. Each rushed toward Lei Wei’s position. Arriving at the main summit, they found Lei Wei standing at the peak, Ji Mo lying peacefully on the ground, and nothing else amiss. The chief elder, Mu Jinhong, glanced at Ji Mo in surprise and asked, “Peak Lord, what’s happened to this girl? What just occurred?”

“Nothing important. I’ve just invented a new move, Thunder Dragon Transformation, and was about to teach it to my little disciple. I forgot her cultivation isn’t yet sufficient for such a technique. She tried it, overextended her spiritual energy, and fainted,” Lei Wei shrugged, gesturing to Ji Mo lying on the ground.